Applied Clay Science 160 (2018) 270–275

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Applied Clay Science

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Research paper

Behavior of talc and mica in copper ore flotation T

a,b,⁎ a a
Saeed Farrokhpay , Bulelwa Ndlovu , Dee Bradshaw
a
JKMRC, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4068, Australia
b
Université de Lorraine, GeoRessources Laboratory, CNRS, UMR 7359, 2 rue du Doyen Marcel Roubault, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy 54518, France

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Talc and mica are major gangue minerals in many base metal ores including sulfide ores. Talc is a naturally
Flotation hydrophobic mineral, and therefore it is easily floatable. There have been many studies to overcome this pro-
Talc blem, and depress talc with various reagents. In this study the flotation of a copper ore in the presence of talc and
Muscovite muscovite was studied. It was found that talc can affect copper flotation mainly via froth phase. The copper
Phyllosilicate
grade and recovery were affected in the presence of only 7% talc. On the other hand, muscovite influenced the
Clay
pulp phase via affecting the pulp rheology. The copper flotation grade was reduced in the presence of high
Rheology
Froth stability amount (30%) of muscovite due to the entrainment, but its effect on the copper recovery was negligible.

1. Introduction surfaces, the basal cleavage face and the edge. The face surface, which
occupies approximately 90% of the talc surface, consists of a tetra-
It is well known that clays have the potential to significantly affect hedral siloxane surface with inert –Si-O-Si- links, and is nonpolar, and
mineral processing (Ndlovu et al., 2013; Basnayaka et al., 2017). In therefore, hydrophobic. Conversely, the edge surface is hydrophilic due
particular, copper ores often contain different clays which can affect to the presence of pH dependent SiOH and MgOH groups. The pro-
metallurgical processing such as flotation. Therefore, the deleterious portionally larger face surface area gives talc its natural hydrophobic
effect of clays on froth flotation has been a topic of interest to many character (Deer et al., 1992).
researchers. Since copper flotation is quite important in many countries Muscovite (KAl2 (AlSi3O10)(OH)2) also has a T-O-T (2:1) layered
such as Australia, Chile, South Africa, Canada, USA, copper ores or pure structure, with a gibbsite O sheet held between the silica layers (Fig. 1).
copper containing minerals (e.g. chalcopyrite) have been often used in The tetrahedral layer is negatively charged due to isomorphic sub-
these studies. While the effect of some clays such as kaolinite and stitution of about 1/4 of the Si4+ ions by Al3+ ions. These negative
bentonite on mineral flotation has been widely investigated (Wang charges are balanced by interlayer K+ ions, which hold subsequent T-O-
et al., 2015), there is no systematic study on the effect of talc and T structures together. This results in a T-O-T eKe T-O-T layer that bind
muscovite (as representative of Mg and Al containing clays, respec- to another T-O-T –K– T-O-T layer by weak van der Waals bonds. It is
tively). along these layers of weak bonding that the prominent cleavage in the
Clays are phyllosilicates made up of varying combinations of sheet silicates occurs.
stacked tetrahedral (T) and octahedral (O) sheets. A tetrahedral sheet Talc causes processing problems due to its hydrophobicity which
comprises silicon-oxygen (SieO) tetrahedrons with shared basal oxygen makes this mineral naturally floatable. In addition, as talc is a magne-
molecules making up the T layer. The octahedral layer, on the other sium silicate mineral, large quantities of talc in flotation concentrates
hand, takes on the structure of either brucite (Mg(OH)2) or gibbsite (Al cause problems during smelting, often resulting in the imposition of
(OH)3). These T and O layers are held together by strong hydrogen smelter penalties for mineral processing companies (Beattie et al.,
bonds to form either 1:1 clays, consisting of one tetrahedral and one 2006). The depression of talc in flotation, and its interaction with
octahedral sheet in a T-O formation, or 2:1 clays, where 2 tetrathedral natural or synthetic depressants have been widely investigated (provide
sheets are bonded with one octahedral sheet in a T-O-T structure. refs). However, the actual effect of this phyllosilicate in flotation, and in
Talc (Mg3(Si2O5)2(OH)2) has a T-O-T (2:1 structure), comprising an particular its separate effect on pulp and froth phases in flotation is not
octahedral brucite O layer sandwiched between 2 silica T layers. T-O-T well known. In addition, the critical concentrations which must be
layers are held together by weak van der Waals forces (Fig. 1). This considered in designing mineral process plants when dealing with talc
structure results in a talc surface structure comprising two different containing ores is also not known. There is also very little research that

⁎
Corresponding author at: Université de Lorraine, GeoRessources, 2 rue du Doyen Marcel Roubault, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy 54518, France.
E-mail address: saeed.farrokhpay@univ-lorraine.fr (S. Farrokhpay).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2018.02.011
Received 26 July 2017; Received in revised form 6 February 2018; Accepted 7 February 2018
Available online 16 February 2018
0169-1317/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
S. Farrokhpay et al. Applied Clay Science 160 (2018) 270–275

EEGD
Hydrophilic surface

FACE

K+ interlayer cations

T Layer
EEGD

O Layer

T Layer

FACE

Fig. 1. Schematic of the structure and SEM images of talc (top), and muscovite (bottom) (Yan et al., 2011; Ndlovu et al., 2013).

investigates the effects of muscovite on flotation. despite the increasing addition of talc and muscovite in order to avoid
The aim of this study is to understand the effects of talc and mus- the effects of slurry wt% on the rheology. In each case, the low grade
covite (as representative of Mg and Al containing clays, respectively) on copper ore was “doped” with increasing concentrations of talc and
the flotation of a copper ore through examination of the grade and muscovite and the grade and recovery were determined. The pH was
recovery behaviour, pulp rheology, and froth characteristics. In parti- maintained at pH 9.8 using KOH and/or HCl. This is the pH condition at
cular, it investigates whether the pulp or froth phase are affected in the which most industrial flotation operations are conducted. Potassium
presence of these clay gangue minerals. The critical concentration at amyl xanthate (PAX, obtained from Tall Bennett Group) and methyl
which such deleterious effects are occurred is also investigated. When isobutyl carbinol (MIBC, obtained from Shell Chimie) were used as
these deleterious effects are fully understood then the ways to prevent collector and frother, at dosages of 100 g/t and 40 ppm, respectively.
these effect, and how to separate these type of clays from an ore would For each test, three concentrates were collected at 10 s intervals over 1,
be the subject of future investigations. 3 and 5 min (cumulative). The air flow rate, conditioning time, and
impeller speed were 3 L/min, 1 min, and 1000 rpm, respectively. The
2. Materials and experimental methods experiments were carried out using Brisbane tap water.
During flotation, froth images were taken and analysed using
A high level summary of the approach used, outlining the materials, VisioFroth software developed by Metso Minerals Cisa for bubble size
and measurements conducted is given in Fig. 2. distribution. A full description of the VisioFroth system is given by
Runge et al. (2007), and it has been used in different studies
2.1. Materials (Kurniawan et al., 2011; Wei et al., 2014).

The copper ore sample was obtained from Northparkes Copper & 2.3. Froth stability tests
Gold Mine, Australia. This ore was chosen due to its relatively un-
problematic flotation characteristics. Such an ore provides a formidable Froth stability is known to play an important role in determining
baseline for the identification of the deleterious effects of clays. The mineral flotation recovery and selectivity (Tang et al., 1989; Barbian
chemical assays of the ore sample contains 0.5% Cu, 3.8% Fe, and 0.3% et al., 2005; Ozdemir, 2013). The presence of clays in ores can dra-
S. The mineralogical analysis of the ore determined using XRD is pre- matically affect froth stability (Karakashev et al., 2011; Farrokhpay
sented in Table 1. Talc and muscovite samples were obtained from et al., 2016). When clays are present as individual particles, they may
Ward's Science. The chemical analysis of the clay samples have been adsorb a large amount of reagents due to their large surface area.
also provided in Table 2. Therefore, they may decrease froth stability. Froth can also become
highly flocculated and dry, and therefore difficult to be removed during
2.2. Flotation tests the flotation. On the other hand, the presence of fine particles may
increase the froth stability, something which is often referred to as
Flotation tests were conducted using a bottom driven flotation cell “Pickering stabilization”.
(JKTech, Australia). The bottom driven cells allow the operator to re- The effect of talc and muscovite on the froth stability of copper ore
move froth from the entire surface of the flotation cell. This minimizes slurry was investigated using a froth column (Fig. 3). The froth stability
operator error and maximizes test reproducibility. The ore was ground was analysed using slurries of similar concentrations of the ore and
to P80 of 90 μm (P50 of 50 μm). Tests were conducted on slurries com- talc/muscovite as used in the flotation tests. A similar method has
prising the copper ore and varying concentrations of talc and musco- previously been used to assess froth stability (Zanin and Grano, 2006;
vite. The flotation tests were conducted at 32 wt% slurry (as it is Farrokhpay and Zanin, 2012). The column is equipped with an impeller
common in flotation work). The overall slurry wt% was kept constant to ensure sufficient pulp agitation. In each case, a 2 L slurry comprising

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Fig. 2. High level summary of experimental approach.

Table 1 less sample disturbance and thixotropic breakdown during the mea-
Mineralogical analysis of the ore used in this study. surements (Nguyen and Boger, 1985). It also eliminates variable gap
effects which commonly arise when dealing with non-Newtonian fluids
Mineral Composition (wt%)
containing yield stress (Fisher et al., 2007).
Chalcopyrite 0.7 The stress-strain tests were conducted in a shear rate controlling
Bornite 1.3 regime, with an upward and downward ramp within the range 0 s−1 to
Pyrite 0.3 400 s−1 over a 60 s time period. No significant hysteresis was observed
Quartz 39.3
Feldspar 43.3
between the upward and downward ramps.
Amphibole 4.2
Oxides 3.2
Carbonates 7.7 3. Results and discussion

3.1. Flotation
the copper ore and clays (at different loadings) was made up. The
suspension was conditioned with collector and frother, and placed into
Fig. 4 shows the effect of talc and muscovite on the copper flotation
the apparatus. Once the pulp slurry was introduced into the column
grade and recovery. It should be noted that it was only possible to test
(time t = 0), the stirrer was turned on. The froth height was then
the talc loading up to 7 wt%. With no clay mineral addition, a max-
measured as a function of time until reaching an equilibrium height. At
imum copper grade of about 19% was obtained. However, a significant
this point, the air was turned off, and the half-life of the froth (t1/2), i.e.
decrease in the copper grade was observed in the presence of both talc
the time needed for the froth to collapse to half its equilibrium height,
and muscovite. The copper grade decreased to about 4% and 2% in the
was measured. Froth half-life represents the dynamic behaviour of froth
presence of 5% and 7% talc, respectively. The copper grade also de-
stability. A very high half-life means froth is too stable and cannot be
creased to about 12%, 7%, and 2% in the presence of 10%, 20%, and
transported.
30% muscovite, respectively. This can be due to the transportation of
clays to the froth phase (i.e. entrainment). The copper recovery de-
2.4. Rheology tests creased from 90% to about 83% in the presence of 7% talc while the
effect of muscovite on the recovery was relatively negligible.
The rheology of slurries comprising equivalent concentrations of the To better understand the behaviour of talc and muscovite during the
copper ore and talc/muscovite (as used in the flotation and froth sta- flotation, the flotation products were assayed for Al2O3 and MgO. It
bility measurements) was measured using an AR1500EX (Thermal should be noted that muscovite is an aluminium-rich silicate (with some
Analysis, Germany), with a standard 4-panel vane rotor geometry. This magnesium substitution) while talc is a magnesium-rich silicate (with
geometry is more suitable for analysis of mineral suspensions. It is less some aluminium substitution). The talc sample used in the current work
susceptible to artefacts arising from large particle sizes, and results in was found to have 0.1% and 32% Al2O3 and MgO, respectively. The

Table 2
Chemical analysis of the talc and muscovite samples.

Sample Al2O3 CaO Fe2O3 K2O MgO MnO Na2O P2O5 SiO2 SrO TiO2 Total LOI

Talc 0,23 0,7 0,13 0,03 32,1 0,06 0,12 0,01 61,2 < 0.01 0,03 99,61 4,99
Muscovite 31,2 0,03 5,34 10,6 1,04 0,01 0,49 0,01 45,7 < 0.01 0,77 99,89 4,48

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Fig. 3. a) A schematic of the froth column (100 cm height, with cross section of 10 × 10 cm) and (b) a physical representation of the initial and equilibrium froth heights (Farrokhpay
et al., 2016).

muscovite sample also contained 31% Al203 and < 1% MgO. The considerably increased from 7 to about 35 s when the highest amount of
amount of MgO in the flotation concentrates can indicate the amount of talc (i.e. 7%) was present, while in the presence of 30% muscovite, it
talc reporting to the concentrate (either by entrainment or true flota- only increased to 15 s. This can be due to the hydrophobicity of talc.
tion). The amount of MgO in the flotation concentrate when 2%, 5%, When air is entered through the froth column, the mineral particles
and 7.5% talc added was found to be 18%, 32%, and 50%, respectively. were attracted by air bubbles, and their unwillingness of staying in
This confirms that more talc particles report to the flotation concentrate water stabilized the froth (Pickering stabilization (Lam et al., 2014)).
when indeed more talc is added resulting lower copper recovery (and it
is in agreement with the flotation grade data as shown in Fig. 4). This 3.3. Rheology
also suggests that talc particles affect the flotation process via mainly
froth phase, which will be discussed in the next section. The amount of Typical shear stress versus shear rate curves for the ore slurry, in the
Al2O3 in the flotation concentrates can also indicate the amount of presence and absence of clays are presented in Fig. 6. The resulting
muscovite reporting to the concentrate. However, only 3%, 6%, and rheograms demonstrated pseudo-plastic behaviour. The Bingham
13% Al2O3 were found in the flotation concentrates when 10%, 20% model was used to estimate the suspension Bingham yield stress in each
and 30% muscovite was added. This indicate that muscovite behaves case. The Bingham model is represented by Eq. (1) (Hunter, 2001),
differently from talc in flotation process. This difference was further where Ʈ is the shear stress (Pa), Ʈ0 is the Bingham yield stress (Pa), ηp is
investigated through analysis of the pulp and froth phase behaviour. the Bingham viscosity (Pas) and γ is the shear rate (s−1). Bingham
model has been widely used to model rheology data of mineral sus-
3.2. Froth stability and structure pensions (Farrokhpay, 2012).
Bingham Plastic model: Ʈ = Ʈ0 + (ηp γ) (1)
Fig. 5 shows the changes in the froth stability, and froth surface
structure upon the addition of talc and muscovite. The froth half-life Clearly, muscovite affected the ore rheology while the effect of talc

Fig. 4. The grade-recovery curve in flotation of copper ore in the presence of talc (left) and muscovite (right).

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Fig. 5. Effect of the clay contents (talc: ● and, muscovite ■) on the froth stability, and froth surface structure.

Fig. 7. Yield stress of the copper ore slurry (obtained using Bingham model) as a function
of amount of talc (●) and muscovite (■).

processing, it may not affect the pulp phase. In fact, it can easily move
to the froth phase due to its hydrophobicity. Therefore, the problem
will be observed in the froth phase (as discussed) and consequently, the
final flotation performance. It should also be reminded that all tested
concentrations in this study fall below the critical solid% of either talc
or muscovite for rheology measurements (Ndlovu et al., 2014).
Muscovite has a larger effect on the suspension yield stress at the
tested concentrations used in this study. With a critical solid wt% of
~20%, slurries containing muscovite with a higher concentration than
this are likely to experience rheological related problems.
Fig. 6. Shear stress versus shear rate for the copper ore slurry with and without clays.

4. Conclusions
is negligible (Fig. 6). The yield stress values for the ore slurry obtained
using the Bingham model (Eq. (1)) are shown in Fig. 7, as a function of The effect of talc and muscovite on the copper flotation was studied.
amount of the clays. The results showed that there was no marginal It was found that talc particles move to the froth phase and therefore
rheological effect on the slurry (pulp) rheology when talc was present. affect the froth stability and froth structure. Consequently, the flotation
This revealed that while talc is a major problematic clay in mineral grade and recovery were affected although the pulp rheology remained

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unchanged. On the other hand, muscovite affected the pulp rheology Fisher, D.T., Clayton, S.A., Boger, D.V., Scales, P.J., 2007. The bucket rheometer for shear
and showed less effect on the froth behaviour. The copper flotation stress-shear rate measurement of industrial suspensions. J. Rheol. 51 (5), 821–831.
Hunter, R.J., 2001. Foundations of Colloids Science. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
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its effect on the copper recovery was negligible. bility of foams stabilized by fine particles with similar size, contact angle and dif-
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Kurniawan, A.U., Ozdemir, O., Nguyen, A.V., Ofori, P., Firth, B., 2011. Flotation of coal
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